Page 17 of Grand Slam

“She thinks she hid it well,” Gran adds. “But I know everything.” Offering me a wink she turns around and starts walking toward the kitchen too.

“Good game last night.” My father holds out his hand for me to shake. He changed after we lost my mother. Granted he’snever been the kind of father that hugged us often. He was the punisher, the enforcer, the one that expected perfection and it was our mother who had to remind him we were just kids. Kids mess up, it’s how we learn.

After she was gone, there was no one left to remind him.

Our relationship, it’s intense, it always has been.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Emerson

Gran is watching me,smiling sweetly, but not saying anything. I think that’s worse than if she walked right up and told me I was being an idiot. Now she knows, because I was stupid enough to have a little too much wine, call Liz while she was driving, and spill everything I’ve ever felt for Kelton, all while on speaker over her Bluetooth, Gran riding happily in the passenger seat, taking in every single word.

Now, knowing she knows, but her refusing to speak about it, it kills me.

What does she think?

I hate not knowing.

The woman is like a tiny little investigator. Always hiding in the shadows, creeping around when you think you are safe enough to share a secret. The worst part is, she drags things out of you without even trying. It’s impossible to hide anything. She has theweirdest way of making you spill everything, like projectile word vomit.

Gross, but so true and the way she keeps looking at me, I can already feel myself slipping.

“How’s your little vacation to Nashville going so far?” she asks, grabbing a grape off the plate and sitting opposite me.

“Good,” I say and cringe. Instantly she lifts her brow knowingly but says nothing. She doesn’t have to, her face says it all. The woman is a human lie detector.

So what do I do? I keep going.

“We went house shopping, it’s beautiful, the house. I think he’ll be happy there. He wants to be able to walk around naked without a neighbor being able to see, so I think it’s perfect, for that I mean.” I shrug, grabbing a handful of grapes and nervously I start to shovel them in. All while I continue on. Someone needs to stop me. I’m a boulder rolling down a steep hill.

“There’s lot of room, lots of privacy. Joey, the realtor, Liv knocked him around a bit during the deal but it all worked out. His face though, he looked a little frightened after they hashed out the offer. But Kelton seemed happy, I think he really hates this place. It doesn’t feel like a home. So he has that now.” I shrug again, because what else am I supposed to do. I’m crumbling here. “I think he was just excited about the house, feeling overwhelmed and the kiss, it was a reflection of that.”

“The kiss?”

I stop, take in a deep breath and start choking on the grape I practically inhaled in the process.

It’s the word vomit effect, it can’t be controlled.

“What kiss?” she asks, leaning in to place her elbows on the counter. My eyes are watering, I take a drink of water and look around for help. “Don’t stop there,” she insists, “go on.”

Granny June is smiling, it’s kind of an evil smile. Not the, I am about to squash you kind, but more the, oh darling, you should just tell me everything because I will get it out of you anyway. Let’s keep things easy kind of grin.

“He called me his sister’s friend,” I confess, my shoulders sagging in the process. Why do I suddenly feel like I’ve been on a twenty-four hour study bender surviving on coffee and energy drinks? I hit a wall, crashed. “I’m a girl from a Chicago suburb. I’m not a model, I don’t have anything to bring to this and he knows that. It was one night, a long time ago. I was the girl who hung on his every word for years and he never noticed, until he noticed. Two weeks before he was moving hundreds of miles away because he just signed a four-year deal with more money than I will ever see in a lifetime.”

I hate how she says nothing. I want to climb inside her mind and dissect her thoughts. Kelton’s mother is gone, and June finished raising them. She is the closest thing to his mother and I know we say we don’t care, but every girl secretly wants to be loved by her guy’s mother.

He’s not even my guy and her opinion means the world to me.

“I’m here, kissing me was a reaction, a in the moment twitch. It’s nothing more than that, it can’t be.”

“Why?” One word, it’s all she offers and that one word feels like it knocks the wind out of me.

“What are we doing in here, ladies?” Liz joins us, and I pick up instantly on the heaviness in the air. “Sorry I had to get out of there.” She looks back over her shoulder toward the living room where Kelton and his father are. “They are already so intense. Dad’s criticizing Kelton on striking out yesterday. And I can see he’s trying to brush it off, but you know Dad, he doesn’t let up. Failure is not in his vocabulary, not that Kelt failed in any way but Lucas James doesn’t see it that way.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kelton

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